One of my favorite parts of leading FemFoundry is having the opportunity to sit down with remarkable women and talk honestly about the realities of building a business. Not the polished version we often see on social media, but the real stories behind the decisions, doubts, setbacks, and successes.
Recently, I had the privilege of moderating our panel discussion, Write Your Next Chapter, with Heather Mausz, Keyonna Taylor, and Rachelle Dever. Going into the conversation, I expected we’d spend most of our time talking about the practical side of entrepreneurship. I thought we’d focus on finding clients, setting prices, building a network, and making the financial transition from corporate life.
We certainly talked about those things, but they weren’t what stayed with me.
As I listened to each woman tell her story, I realized the conversation kept circling back to something much deeper. We weren’t really talking about entrepreneurship. We were talking about identity, confidence, and what happens when accomplished women begin asking themselves whether the career they’ve built is still the career they want.
Although each woman had a very different path, their stories shared a common thread. Heather left corporate to create more flexibility for her family while continuing work she loved. Keyonna wanted to build value for something she owned rather than continuing to invest her talents solely in someone else’s business. Rachelle reached a point where her work no longer aligned with her purpose and decided it was time to build something different.
Listening to them, I couldn’t help but reflect on my own journey. My path into entrepreneurship began after an unexpected layoff, and while the circumstances were different, I recognized many of the same emotions they described. The uncertainty. The excitement. The questions about whether years of corporate experience would really translate into building a business.
By the end of our discussion, one thing had become incredibly clear to me. None of us had started over. We had simply found a new way to apply everything we’d spent years learning.
That realization shaped nearly every conversation we had that afternoon, and it’s one I think every woman considering entrepreneurship needs to hear.
We Spend Years Learning How to Lead. Very Few of Us Learn How to Become Owners.
One observation kept coming back to me as I listened to the panel. Most of us have spent our entire careers learning how to become exceptional employees and leaders. We’ve learned how to manage teams, lead organizations, build strategies, solve difficult problems, and navigate change. What very few of us have been taught is how to think like business owners.
That’s why so many women question whether they’re qualified to start a consulting business or launch a professional services firm. They assume they’re starting from scratch.
What I heard from every panelist suggested exactly the opposite.
Heather spoke about taking decades of leadership experience and applying it in a way that allowed her to create more flexibility without sacrificing meaningful work. Keyonna talked about finally wanting ownership over the value she was creating. Rachelle reminded us that our careers prepare us in ways we often fail to recognize because we’ve become so accustomed to using those skills inside someone else’s organization.
During our conversation, I shared something I’ve come to believe deeply over the past few years.
Your experience didn’t belong to your employer. It belongs to you.
The company may have given you opportunities, but the leadership skills, strategic thinking, resilience, and expertise you’ve developed are yours to carry into whatever comes next.
